Alamo City celebrates its birthday with new brews

By Scooter Hendon

Special to DFW.com

March 08, 2017 09:21 AM

UPDATED May 05, 2017 01:46 PM

As one of Texas’ oldest cities, San Antonio has a rich history. Founded in 1718 by Spanish settlers, it has its 300th birthday coming up next year, and two San Antonio breweries are combining efforts to honor the occasion.

The first to be released is San Antonio Lager from Ranger Creek. It’s a bright-yellow lager that is described as a “traditional German lager,” closest to the Helles style. With bready malts and a light amount of bright, clean hops to balance, this beer is easy drinking and perfect for warm weather.

San Antonio Lager fits into a growing segment of Texas craft beers that are well-made counterparts to some Mexican beers that are so beloved throughout the state. With the brightly colored can design and obvious nod to Texas heritage, it’s not a stretch to think that this beer will attract otherwise non-craft drinkers to dabble.

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Big Bend Brewing in Alpine has also made a significant effort to break into that market. With its “Tejas” line, Big Bend is making some obvious plays to be included alongside the Modelos and Pacficos of the world with Tejas Lager, Tejas Clara and Tejas Negra. Fitting the bill in both can design and flavor profile, they’ve made it clear that the market is ripe for diversification.

Dallas’ Deep Ellum Brewing continues to push its Neato Bandito after several years of success in converting drinkers to the style.

It’s also worth noting that most Mexican beers are brewed in a German style, so the marriage of Mexican beers with German influences and beers brewed by latter-day European immigrants makes this trend all the more relevant for our state.

Canned six-packs of San Antonio Lager will be available throughout the year in DFW, and Freetail’s San Antonio Pale Ale will be released soon, but won’t be as commonly available in our area.

Quick sips

St. Patrick’s day comes early: Several local breweries are celebrating St. Paddy’s this Saturday with a diverse lineup of events. Intrinsic Smokehouse & Brewery in Garland (intrinsicbrewing.com) and Shannon Brewing in Keller (shannonbrewing.com) are both hosting morning 5K runs, with post-run beer festivities. Community Beer Company in Dallas (communitybeer.com) always holds a big shindig.

Brewing and grooving: Featuring 18 local bands and beers from 15 local breweries, Local Brews, Local Grooves returns to House of Blues Dallas from 4 to 11 p.m. March 18. Tickets are $14-$60 and include beer samples and food samples; more expensive tickets include more benefits.

Have a question or tips for Scooter? Shoot him an email at texasbrew@dfw.com. And for more beer columns and news, visit www.dfw.com/beer.